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G.Metta and D.C.Hogg
Control of a Steerable Camera with Variable Zoom.
A steerable camera with variable zoom provides a convenient way for monitoring a wide area scene whilst also allowing close-up views of the individual objects within the scene. The ability to steer and zoom the camera automatically under the control of a machine vision system has many potential applications within the field of surveillance.
The talk will report on our experience with developing a prototype control system for a steerable camera using a state-of-the-art visual tracking system, able to deal with cluttered backgrounds. The steerable camera is a low-cost device available commercially and intended for video-conferencing applications. Although of reasonable quality it suffers from errors in mechanical positioning.
The prototype system works in real-time with control software running on a standard UNIX workstation. Two processes cooperate in carrying out the task: the vision process and the control process. Control is based on a fast one-shot control saccade to center detected objects in the field of view, and slower continuous visual tracking to follow the object as it moves.